Love Struck
by VelvetNixie
Summary: (Humanstuck/Schoolstuck/Jadekat) Karkat meets a beautiful girl in the hallway one day. Love at first sight?
1. Chapter 1

I'm frozen, not knowing what to do next. The most beautiful girl I have ever seen is standing right in front of me. Our surroundings blurred around us—the empty hallway, the obnoxiously vibrant blue lockers—making her the only thing in focus. _Her_, her dark hair falling in curls down from her ponytail, the freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose, her vivid green eyes looking _right at me_.

"Excuse me?" She gently brings me back to reality.

"Oh, sorry." My face flushes furiously. I'm acutely away of the lumpy sweatshirt and ratty jeans I had decided to wear that morning, as well as the hall pass excusing me from class clasped tightly in my sweaty right fist.

"It's fine." She smiles brightly. "I was wondering if you could show me to my class? I got confused."

"Sure." I take her schedule from her, scanning it to find 3rd period. "Mindfang, huh? You're in the wrong section of the school entirely."

She grimaces. "Typical. I asked some seniors for directions, and somehow I ended up by the portables."

"Never ask the seniors for directions," I advised her, leading her down the hallway. "They'll send you in the opposite direction of where you're supposed to be going."

"And why aren't you in class?"

"I had to escort one of my idiotic friends to the fucking health room." I waved the pass at her. "I'm not ditching or anything. Though I wouldn't mind it," I added in a mutter. I pretended not to notice her slight flinch at the swear word, taking a mental note of making an effort not to swear as much in front of her. We continued to wind through the hallways for a few minutes in silence. I was desperately trying to think of something to say, even as we stopped in front of the classroom door. "Well, here you are," I said, trying not so sound disappointed.

She had just reached for the doorknob when I realized that I had forgotten to ask what her name was. "Wait!" I hated how frantic my voice sounded. "What's your name?"

"Jade." She looked back to smile at me. "Jade Harley." She turned the knob of the door and entered the classroom, leaving me staring after her in the empty hallway with a love pierced heart.

**A/N: Not sure if I'll continue this; I might just leave it as a oneshot, unless if a lot of people want more.**


	2. Chapter 2

I didn't see Jade again until lunch.

I was telling one of my better friends, Kanaya, about our encounter when I saw her across the cafeteria. I pointed her out to Kanaya, only to be rewarded with the dangerous expression of pursed lips.

"Oh come on," I groaned. "Her fashion sense can't be that bad."

Kanaya shook her head, daintily taking a bite of her salad. "I would never have chosen to wear that particular attire in a public place," she said after she had swallowed, Seeing my exasperated look, she added, "She looks like a very pleasant girl though."

Our conversation was interrupted by Rose, Kanaya's girlfriend, as she sat down next to us. Soon lost in their discussion of history, I looked around for Jade once more, but I had lost sight of her in the crowded lunchroom. I turned my attention instead to the conversation taking place to my right between John, Dave, and Terezi. John was telling Dave how his cousin had just switched to this school and how amazing she was. Uninterested, I didn't say anything, deciding to look back on my encounter with Jade. Here I was, hopelessly in love with her, but… She probably didn't think anything of me. She didn't even know my name. Sighing, I picked at my food, having lost all appetite.

"Why are you telling me this?" asked Dave, his nonchalant tone and bored expression betrayed by the way he was intently leaning over the table towards John.

John shrugged, a goofy smile spread across his face. "I dunno. I'm really excited about it! I haven't seen her in a really long time—." The rest of John's sentence was interrupted by a pair of long, tan arms snaking around his neck.

"Hi John!" said a bright, cheery voice. I looked up from my food, only to immediately look back down again, blushing furiously. I peeked up at the scene surreptitiously. Jade was hugging John, an almost identical smile on her face. How I hadn't noticed that before, I had no idea.

Dave raised his eyebrows at John from behind his sunglasses. "Are you going to introduce us to this gorgeous young lady or keep her all to yourself?"

As Jade flushed a bright red that reminded me of ripe strawberries, John smoothly made the introductions. When he got to me, Jade, recognizing me from earlier in the day, gave me a small wink. I desperately wanted to say something clever or compliment her, but for the first time in my life, I was lost for words. I could only watch helplessly as Dave flirted skillfully with her, as she giggled and called him a cool kid. I was glad when John dragged Dave off to go find their shared Biology teacher.

Jade turned to me. "So your name is Karkat, right?"

"Yeah." I seemed to have regained my voice. I fished around for a topic to talk about, finally settling on the school. "So how do you like it here so far?"

"Oh, it seems like a good school," she said neutrally. "There are lots of cool people here."

"It must be pretty hard, coming into a new school as a sophomore and leaving your friends behind."

"I was homeschooled by my grandpa until now. I didn't have very many friends, since we were pretty excluded from anyone else." She shrugs. "This is all new to me."

"Why did you stop being homeschooled and switch to public schooling?" I asked, curious. "Honestly, most people would much prefer being homeschooled." I could tell by the desolate expression on her face that I had said something wrong. Hastily, I added, "Look, I didn't realize it was a bad subject…"

Grimacing, Jade shakes her head. "It's fine."

An awkward silence stretched for a couple moments. I fidgeted, finally thinking of a way to change the subject. "If if makes you feel any better, I'm new to this place too," I confessed.

Jade nodded thoughtfully, thankfully grasping back onto the safe conversation of school. "Yeah, I remember John mentioning you last year. He said that you were new last year."

John had talked to her about me. _John had talked to her about me._ "What else did John say about me?" I flashed her a slight smirk, my best impression of Dave's. "Good things, I hope."

She giggled. "He did mention that I'd probably find you cute. And that you swore a lot and had funny insults." Thank god for John Egbert.

"All that is true," I conceded. "Especially the cute part." I couldn't believe how easy it was—talking to her, I mean. The words seemed to effortlessly flow striaght from my mind to my mouth. Honestly, I had no idea how it was happening, as I had never had much luck with girls, but I wasn't exactly going to look this gift horse in the mouth.

We chatted aimlessly for the rest of lunch, both jumping as the warning bell rang. I smiled at her, giving her a shy wave. However, before I knew it, her arms had entwined around me, hugging me tightly. My cheeks turning red, I hugged her back, resting my head on her shoulder. Her hair smelled like a surprising pleasant combination of pumpkin pie and lemons.

And all I knew in the twenty seconds that we stood there was that I never wanted to let her go.

**a/n: So I decided to make this fic a short collection of one-shots in this au... :3 I'll probably have maybe 5 to 7 chapters.**


	3. Chapter 3

"I just can't believe him sometimes!" Jade complained, brows furrowed behind her circular glasses in frustration. "It's like he thinks I can't live without him."

Nodding sympathetically, I took a bite of my pasta. We had decided to go out to lunch today before joining John, Dave, Rose, Kanaya, and Vriska for laser tagging.

It had been a little over a year since we first met as sophomores. I had quickly become one of Jade's closer friends—it had taker her a while to get used to my swearing, but soon I had introduced her to a much larger vocabulary—and we often confided things to each other. Except for one thing; I still hadn't revealed my long-term attraction to her. It certainly didn't help that she had a short fling with Tavros a month after we met and that she was now currently dating Dave. To my extreme relief, however, her new relationship was definitely not the smoothest.

"Maybe you two should take a break," I suggested. "Slow it down a little. It sounds like you guys are taking things really fast."

Jade sighed. "I know. We've only been dating for like, a week and a half, and now he wants me to go on some three day beach trip with just him? It's ridiculous!"

"Seriously. Don't be afraid to just freaking say no. Remember what happened with him and Terezi?" Dave and Terezi had gone out early in the beginning of this school year. Dave had completely, and he swears accidentally, led her on before dumping her within a week.

She nodded, obviously conflicted. "I mean, sometimes he's just an ass. But other times... I can tell he has this sensitive side under that cool kid facade."

I rolled my eyes, finishing the last bite of my meal. "Really? I don't see it."

Scowling at me briefly, she finished off the last of her Panini, and I requested the bill from the passing waiter. As I pulled out my wallet, I noticed her giving me a weird look. "What?"

"You don't have to pay it," she argued, pulling out her own wallet. "I thought it was my turn to pay."

I waved my hand at her dismissively. "No way. Today is on me."

"But you always pay! I'll pay this time," she insisted, not putting her money away.

"So? The guy always pays. I don't mind anyway, especially for such a pretty girl."

She blushed at the flattery, giving up and sliding her wallet back into her purse. "You know, Karkat? Maybe I'll just break up with Dave soon."

I couldn't believe my ears. "What makes you say that?"

A far-off look entered her eyes. "I'm not sure. I guess that I just don't really feel the same way about him that I used to. We've been dating for only two weeks, and we've spend most of that time arguing about something stupid. Maybe it's just not meant to work out."

I tried to keep the elated feeling that was currently bouncing around in my chest from showing on my face, but a small slipped through. "It's your decision, but if you feel like you should because of those reasons, then you probably should."

We walked out of the restaurant towards my car. As I paused to pull my keys out of my pocket, Jade kissed me on the cheek. "Thanks for the advice, Karkat. You're a huge help."

"It's nothing," I mutter, embarrassed. I touched the spot on my cheek where her lips had been, smiling like an idiot and glad that she had already gotten in the car and couldn't see me.


End file.
